Did You Know These Secrets of WDW’s Cinderella Castle?

Most Walt Disney World® Resort fans are well aware of the suite located in Cinderella Castle that is used by very few. It is used by celebrities, by Make A Wish recipients and sometimes a night in the suite is even given away as a prize. Many also know about the “Kiss Goodnight” where you can actually hear Roy Disney. If you stay around the castle long enough around park closing time, you might hear a message which features audio from Roy’s dedication speech set to the lights going off around the castle. There are a few lesser known secrets about the castle that many may not know and here are just a few.

♦ There are three (3) elevators in the castle. One elevator goes up to Cinderella’s Royal Table restaurant to accommodate guests in wheelchairs; another is used to move food from kitchen to kitchen; and, the third is used by cast and crew to reach the underground Utilidoors, as well as those who are lucky enough to stay in that special suite.

♦ Each holiday season brings beautiful light displays that make Cinderella Castle look like Elsa’s from Frozen. The castle is covered with over 200,000 LED lights that are so efficient they only use about the same amount of energy as a clothes dryer.

♦ Take a really good look at the clock on the front of the castle! It has “IIII” instead of “IV.” This wasn’t a mistake. The Imagineers were trying to be true to the times. The “IV” roman numeral wasn’t used until after the Colonial Period, and since Cinderella Castle is based on a time centuries before that, they couldn’t use a “IV.”

♦ Who remembers the Imagineers turning the castle into a giant birthday cake for the Magic Kingdom’s 25th birthday? It took 400 gallons of pink paint to cover the castle. Included were 26 candles ranging from 20 to 40 feet in height. Also included were massive gumdrops, lifesavers, lollipops, and other goodies. The castle stayed like this for 15 months starting in 1996.

♦ A room directly beneath the castle controls almost everything in the park! What controls the animatronics at The Hall of Presidents? Or the light shows at night? Or the stage curtains at Country Bear Jamboree? A small room underneath the castle does. The system is both brilliant and complicated, as it controls hundreds of Animatronic characters throughout the park all at the same time.

♦ Why is the castle only 189 feet tall? At the time of construction, Florida required every building above 200 feet tall to have a red blinking light atop it for the safety of passing airplanes. There’s no way a red blinking light would look good on top of a medieval castle, so the Imagineers made it shorter and used “forced perspective” to make it appear taller.

♦ Sadly, after the events of September 11, the park wanted to make changes to ensure guest safety. On that day the parks were evacuated because it was a potential target for attacks due to large crowds. Now the entire park is a no-fly zone for added protection. Cinderella Castle, a landmark, is largely the reason why the government worked with Disney to make this law.

♦ Almost daily during the summer it storms for a good thirty minutes and with summer storms comes lightning. Because of this there are many carefully placed lightning rods throughout the park to ensure guest’s safety. The biggest one at the Magic Kingdom is Cinderella Castle! The Epcot ball is also a lightning rod, and the Sorcerer’s hat that used to be part of Hollywood Studios was one as well.

♦ Cinderella Castle has 27 beautiful towers, however original designs included two other towers. The two additional towers would not have been visible from any direction, so Imagineers decided to cut them from the final plans for construction. However, each tower is numbered 1 through 29 but towers 13 and 17 are missing!

♦ The moat surrounding the castle contains 3.37 million gallons of water. That’s enough to fill more than five Olympic Swimming Pools.

♦ The castle’s design was inspired by 10 other castles throughout multiple countries including Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, Fontainebleau, Versailles and the châteaux of Chenonceau, Pierrefonds, Chambord and Chaumont.

♦ Hidden inside one of the flags on top of one of the top towers is a transmitter that coordinates the parades and parade routes.